Oboroed/Circus Lives

UUAR;
2005

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One of the most interesting side effects of the prevalence of mp3s and file-sharing is the way these streamlined modes of distribution have better enabled artists, particularly those of the improv-based underground, to become as absolutely hyper-productive as they dare to be. Experimental acts ranging from freeform tribes like Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice to electronic terrorists like Dead Machines or Hive Mind have managed to become almost ridiculously prolific, carpet-bombing the landscape with one EP, tour-only cassette, or home-burned CD-R after another.

And though typically released in modest quantities on a bevy of homemade micro-labels-- occasionally pressed in absurdly limited runs as small as 30 or 40 copies-- these rare crackled eggs always seem to eventually find their way to the internet, helping the groups to build brand-recognition via word-of-mouth if only through their sheer abundance of material. But while such steady, relentless output allows indiscriminate fans to live with a perpetual embarrassment of riches, it's also meant that too often quality control has been kicked to the curbside, as artists begin to place less importance on each individual recording, instead emphasizing their overall, ever-expanding body of work.

This tendency towards continuous production has now seemingly become so pervasive that, as evidenced by the Terrestrial Tones' Oboroed / Circus Lives, it has begun to govern side projects as well. Terrestrial Tones is a duo consisting of Dave "Avey Tare" Porter and Eric Copeland of, respectively, Animal Collective and Black Dice, two groups who've certainly never permitted cobwebs to settle on their discographies. Oboroed / Circus Lives follows the duo's debut album Blasted by a matter of months, and provides another, more potent dose of the twosome's burbling, minimalist electronic emissions.

Though titled and configured as if it's intended to be considered a single, the two-track Oboroed / Circus Lives contains well over 40 minutes of music and certainly requires the same listener commitment as a full album. Both pieces are loosely-assembled, home-recorded collages of processed samples, tape loops and inscrutable electronic ephemera, constructed with the same disheveled DIY charm as the abstractions on their debut. Here, however, the extended running time of each track has given the duo the necessary headroom for their unflappable, languid repetitions to truly hold sway.

Heard under the right circumstances, the shifting waves of the opening "Oboroed" can be as richly enveloping as a warm cloud of honey-scented smoke, its unhurried progressions calling to mind some of the more tranquil stretches of the Mille Plateaux back catalog. But the track's weave is so fragile that it threatens to disintegrate under close scrutiny, and when heard in the wrong mood its static, recurring loops of clipped laughter and processed chirping can quickly become as grating as intermittent wipers raking across a dry windshield.

Less finicky is the follow-up/flipside "Circus Lives". With its noisier, coarser features, this slightly shorter cut demands (and rewards) more rapt attention. The track opens with a series of agitated sci-fi effects, homely robot tones that later segue into what sounds like the malfunctioning calliope of a downtrodden circus. Towards song's end, the curtain is lifted suddenly to reveal Porter and Copeland in their street clothes, their hands clutching at puppet strings as the tune marches away on a pulse of cheap keyboards and distorted vocals.

As with Blasted, one needs to strain a bit to hear much evidence of the musicians' other bands at work in Terrestrial Tones, though fans of Black Dice's Creature Comforts might occasionally catch a familiar scent on the wind. And as with their debut, one can't help but leave with the feeling that Oboroed / Circus Lives could've withstood a vigorous revision or two, as well as with the realization that there's nothing to prevent these guys from releasing another couple records just like it before the year is out.